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2 SheetsSheet 1.

(No Model.)

W. A. COMPTON.

WOOD EMBOSSING MACHINE.

No. 331,769. Patented'Dec. ,8, 1885.

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XVILLIAM A. COMPTON, OF LIBERTY CORNER, NEXV JERSEY.

WOOD-EMBOS SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters SING MACHINE.

Patent No. 331,769, dated December 8, 1885.

Application filed February 16,1885. Serial No. 156,033. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, \VILLLUI A. COMPTON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Liberty Corner, Somerset county, New Jersey, have inventedcertain new and useful Improve ments in Parallel \VooddnmbossingMachines, fully described and represented in the following specificationand the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the. same.

This invention consists in the combination and arrangement of two rotarycutters or disks operated to sever the fibers of the wood in parallellines and an embossing-roller ar ranged and operated to impress theentire surface of the wood between such parallel lines. Heretoforeirregular figures have been embossed upon the wood by first impressing acutting-edge into the wood around the margin of such figures, thecutters being affixed to the embossingroller, as in my application No.143,027, or applied to the wood by means of a separate roller, as inUnited States Patent No. 299,98-L In either case great expense isincurred in forming such cutters and fitting them upon the convexsurface of the rollers, and in the latter case the roll bearing thecutters must be rotated in exact unison with the roll for depressing theirregular figures; and the object of this invention is to ornament thesurface of the wood with strips of parallel depressed or ornamentedsurface, and to avoid the expense and difficulty of embossing thesurface only partly with figures.

B Y in Y invention a stri of uniforml r en1- bossed or ornamentedsurface may he produced in the middle of such narrow boards as are usedfor wainscoting and trimming, with an exceedingly simple and inexpensiveapparatus and without any appreciable expense, as the tools are easilykept in order, and the wood may be run through the machine withgreatrapidity.

The nature of the mechanism is shown in the annexed drawings, Figure 1being merely an illustrative diagram showing the tools in operation, themeans for. supporting and adj ust-ing the same being omittedfronithe-drawings, as they are already well known in the art. Fig. 2 is aplan of the bed employed beneath the cinbossing-roll to support thematerial acted upon, and showing a board partially embossed by thetools. Fig. 3 is an end view of such bed at the end adjacent to therotary disks, with a board in section beneath the disks. Fig. 4 is anelevation of the embossingroller with a section of the board beneath it.Fig. 5 is a section of the board when finished. Fig. 6 is a plan of thesame. Fig. 7 is a perspective section of the embossed surface, and Fig.8 is an alternative form for the cutting-disk; and Fig. 9, a roll withdisks attached, and Fig. 10 a board embossed thereby.

In Figs. 3 and 9 the enibossingroller and rotary cutters arecoinbined 0nthe same arbor, but are shown as constructed separately in Figs. 1 and5.

A is the embossing-roller; B, the rotary disks; A and B, the arbors forthe same when separate; O, the bed; and D are gages applied to the bedto guide the board in the proper path beneath the tools. E is the board;F, the parallel cuts made by the rotary disks, and G the surfacedepressed and ornamented between such cuts. It R are pressure-rollsmounted beneath the board E, the same being combined with thesupporting-bed O in any desired manner. 1 is a driving-pulley attachedto the arbor A, and is rotated by any convenient means in the directionof the arrow 1) to propel the boards through the ma chine in contactwith the rolls R- It. The roller A and disks B are set to penetrate thewood to the desired degree, and the boards, being fed continuously intothe machine, are guided by the gages D in the required path beneath thetools A and B, and are embossed with great rapidity.

In my invention the ornamentation by enibossing is limited entirelytofine patterns with very slight reliefsuch as are shown in theperspective section of the embossed sur' face in Fig. 7as suchornamentation can be impressed upon the wood without any danger ofrupturing the depressed fibers, and therefore without the application ofcutting-edges to the outline of the figures. The entire surface of theroll Ais therefore ornamented with some uniform slightly-raised figurewhich is adapted for impression upon the wood-without the priorapplication of any cutting-edges,

the use of such cutters being thereby restricted to the parallel edgesof the depressed surface shown at F F, on a line with the disks B.

I In Fig. 2 the disks are beveled on the inner side only. so as to forma vertical edge to the depressed surface, as in Fig. 5. The edges of thedisks are shown in Fig. 3 as beveled in both directions, so as toimpress a V-shaped groove in the wood, the sharp edges of the diskserving to gradually and smoothly sever the fibers as it enters them,the operation being plainly illustrated at Z in Fig. 1. Such V-grooveaffords a slight clearance for the ends of the embossing-roller,as shownat m in Fig. 4.

In Fig. 6 the depressed surface G between the grooved lines F is veryplainly shown, the path of the roller exactly corresponding with andfilling the space between such, lines, so that the ends of the rollerdepress only the fibers already severed,and are notoperated to depressany fibers that have a solid connection with others adjoining to them.

The sharp-edged disk shown in Figs. 3 and 4 obviously operates withoutremovingany of the wood; but as its function is merely to sever thefibers adjacent to the ends of the embossing-roll it is plain thatrevolving toothed cutters-such as are shown in Fig. 8--mightbe used, orthat straight inclined blades might be substituted therefor. I havetherefore shown such inclined blades in dotted lines n in Fig. 1, thesame being represented as held in the bar a by a set-screw, o. The disksBare shown. adjustable upon the arbor B by means of set: screws'i,applied to their hubs j, andthe blades 1?. can also be madeadjustable upon a holdingbar in any suit-able manner, as by ,clampingthem thereon. v

In Fig. 8 the toothed cutter shown is of the. same kind as the disks B,but formed with, large notches adapted to form four teethor.

independently of the roller A ,at a high rate of speed in a directioncontrary to the motion of the board, to cut a smooth groove therein,while the plain disks (shown in Figs. 2 and 3) require no drivingmechanism,but operate to cut the fibers in the required manner when theboard is propelled beneath them. by the rotation of the roller A.Feed-rollers may be employed to carry the. wood into the machine, asindicated by the. dotted circles at H in Fig. 1; but such rolls would,require to be connected with the embossing roll by positive gearing tomake. them both run at the same surface-speed,and I do not find thatsuch feed-rolls arenecessary in practice, but that the drivingmechanismcan be restricted entirely to the roll A. It is also evident that thedriving mechanism may, be restricted entirely to the feed-rollers H, anda that in such case the cutters and embossing roll would be rotated bycontact with .the moving board, the same effects being producedas in theembossed roll with the driving agent.

Figs. 9 and 10 show aslight modification of my invention, in which theparallel lines at the edge of the depressed surface may be scalloped,waved, zigzag, or indented with any desired outline. To effect such aresult, the cutters require to be attached to the embossing-roller, thesame as shown in Fig. 3, Fig. 9 showing waved cutters adapted to formwavy parallel outlines to the depressed surface, which latter is shownin Fig. 10. In this construction the embossing-surface of the roll isextended into contact with the cutter at all points, thus operating,when pressed upon the wood, to emboss and depress the entire surfacebetween the waved lines without any rupture of the fibers at theindented margin of such ornamented surface. It is plain that this resultcould not be obtained by operating the cutters upon a separate arborwithout gearing the roll andcutters together and carefully adjustingtheroll so that it would operate acfcurately within the scalloped orindented outline.

. .7 The separate cutters shown in Fig. 2,being movable upon theirarbor, may be set to and from one another and clamped in their re-.quired positions by set-screws i, and the same cutters may therefore beadapted to produce the parallel cuts or grooves at different distancesapart to cooperate with embossing-rolls of greater or less length. It isalso obvious ,thatany number of. cutters may be employed simultaneously,and rolls of suitable width be applied between the alternate pairs ofgrooves,

and thesurface of the board he thus ornamented witha series of depressedstrips. In

allsuch. casesthe ornamentation is evidently in parallel lines, by whichI do not mean straight, lines, but continuous cutting -lines lwhosevariations from oneanother recur continuously-by reason of the rotationof the cuttingdisks, and which continuous recurrence producesuniformityiin the width of the decutting-faces, and would require tobedriven.

pressed strip at regularlyrecurring intervals.

Asmooth :polished surface may be producedint-he surface of the depressedstrip by employing a polished roll in the place of one having embossedfigures formed thereon, and

,as such smooth and compressed surface forms an agreeable contrast withthe higher level of the wood,- by its sides, I claim suchsmoothly-depressed.strips equally with those thatareuniformly embossed,and have there- .fore shown sucha smooth roller and plain depressedsurface in Fig. 1, while the other figures of the drawings show the rolland depressed strip with the diamond-shaped pattern, .whichisillustrated upon a larger scale while their disposition in oppositedirections in, the alternate diamonds forms a very agreeable contrast tothe eye. Designs of such low relief are particularly adapted forembossing the depressed strips G, and any pattern in which such lowrelief is employed should I therefore be used to ornament the strips.The depressed strip may also be burnished or even scorched toa darkertint than the surface above it by feeding the boards slowly through themachine, as by feed-rolls H, and rapidly rotating a polished metalroller like that shown at A in Fig. 2.

The class of ornamentation required for my embossing-rollers can bereadily produced by knurling the entire surface of a metallic roll witha suitable knurling-wheel, thus engraving the roll very cheaply andneatly, and greatly reducing the cost of preparing the same forpracticing my invention.

From the above description it will be seen that my invention differsfrom any in which the surface is only partially embossed, as in suchcase the outlines of the embossed figures mustbe cut to prevent therupturing of the marginal fibers, and that in such cases the cuttingmust be done across the fibers of the wood in every direction withcurved cutters, which are very expensive and difiicultto keep in order.In my invention, on the contrary, no cutting-lines are required around aclosed figure or around any isolated and depressed portion of thesurface; but such cutting-lines are avoided in my invention bydepressing the entire surface of the wood in a parallel band orstrip,the opposite margins of which are the only parts that require theoperation of cutting-edges to prepare them for the action of theembossing-roller.

My invention also differs from that allowed to me in patent applicationNo. 299,994, in that the cutters shown herein form a continuouscutting-edge, as around the periphery of a disk, instead of surroundingan inclosed area which is to be separately depressed; and my presentcutters, therefore, are only adapted to form continuous parallel cuts inthe surface of the wood.

I have not in my present application claimed the wood embossed in themanner herein described, but have filed a separate patent ap plication,No. 156,032, of even date herewith, for such embossed wood as a newarticle of manufacture.

I am aware that rollers for embossing the entire surface passed overbysaid rollers have been used, as in United States Patent-s Nos. 158,952and 266,763, and also that cutters have been used in combination withsuch rollers, as in United States Patents Nos. 152,627 and 157,815. Inthe latter patents the cuttors are employed, in connection with theroller in a machine for scalloping leather straps, simply to trim theedges of the strap at even distance from the edge of the scallopthroughout its whole length. In my inventionthe cutters do not cut offand remove any part of the material, but their function is to sever thefibers of the wood at the line between the elevated surface and that tobe depressed, so that when the depression is made by the roller no roughedge will be formed, as is the case where no cutting-edges are employedto perform such function. My invention differs from the former patents,in that it consists in the combination, with the embossing-rollers, ofthe cuttingedges herein shown and described, which combination is notemployed in said patents. I therefore disclaim the above constructions,limiting myself to the combinations herein specifically set forth.

Vhat I claim is 1. The combination,in an organized machine for embossingwood, of an embossing-roller provided with a continuous annular pattern,

means for applying and pressing the same.

upon the wood, and two cutters arranged and operated in relation to theedges of the annular embossing-pattern to sever the fibers of the woodto a given depth in parallel lines at such edges, the whole beingarranged and operated for the roller to depress the entire surface ofthe wood between such parallel cuts, and the cutters thus operating toseparate continuously, by a clean cut, the depressed strips from theundepressed portion of the wood at the opposite edges thereof,substantially as shown and described.

2. The combinatiomin an organized machine, of a woodembossing rollconstructed with a continuous annular pattern unprovided withcutting-edges upon its surface, and cutters affixed to its ends andadapted to cut the woody fibers to the depth of the intended depressionin indented parallel lines, the embossing-rollcr being operated asdescribed, for the continuous annular pattern to impress the entiresurface of the wood between such indented parallel lines, substantiallyas and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

.VILLIAM A. COMPTON.

Witnesses:

THos. S. CRANE, HENRY J. THEBERATII.

